Collector’s Corner: Don

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Name: Don

Location: Central Florida

Collection Size: 659

3″ = 583

9″ = 56

Jrs = 20

Why do you collect Vinylmations?
Walt Disney World has always been our favorite family vacation destination for many years. I actually came with my mom as a child in 1973, the second summer the Magic Kingdom was opened. We came back just about every other summer since then prior to moving to Florida. It holds a lot of special memories for me with my parents and then with our children who have grown up going there over the years. After moving to Florida in 2003 we immediately acquired annual passes for my wife, my daughter and myself and have visited the parks quite frequently since then. When we moved, our son decided to stay in Virginia to complete his college degree. But it wasn’t too long before he decided to move to Florida. Since we have been to the parks on many occasions we began looking for something new to do together as a family when we visited. My son and I immediately fell in love with Vinylmations. It started off small with hitting all the trading spots while visiting the parks and has grown into a real obsession with collecting as many as we can. My son now works full time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and our daughter’s fiancé is now working at EPCOT in an intern program and plans on working at WDW full time when he graduates next year. Who knows, my wife and I may join them in retirement!

What is your favorite Vinylmation you own?
That is such a difficult question to answer when I have so many. Even though my favorite artist overall is Maria Clapsis I have to say that Thomas Scott designed my top two favorites, Oopsy Mickey and Paint Drip Mickey. Wall-e and Eve are a close third and fourth.

What is you favorite Vinylmation you DO NOT own?
I have mainly concentrated on collecting 3” Vinylmations and the 9” figures that are sold with a 3”. I still have a desire to collect other 9” that either hold special memories for me or the design is just incredible! The 9” Park 1 “It’s a Small World” has eluded me to this point and I really would like to have it for my collection.

Which of these is the best feeling: Pulling a figure you want… from a blind box you just purchased, from a great trade with another collector, from a mystery trading box at the park or from a clear trading box?
Since we love trading Vinylmations from the black mystery boxes in the parks there is nothing like the excitement of finding a rare one. Last weekend at the Frontierland Trading Post my daughter pulled the green Cyclops variant. Also several years ago my wife found two Urban 1 Vinylmations in a clear box in EPCOT but that is extremely rare.

How much planning went into your extensive Vinylmation display?
Our house has a small foyer and for a while we displayed them there in various display cases. It didn’t take long to outgrow the space and about the same time we were talking about renovating our guest bedroom. For a while I dreamed about how we could use this space for our Vinylmation collection. I was very fortunate to know someone who was a carpenter and he helped me design and build the large glass unit over a built-in dresser. From there we added several other display shelves and the long shelf over the window. We were able to find Park 1 and Urban 1 prints to frame and hang over the bed and some pictures of Vinylmations sold in the Disney store to compliment the room. We also used two 9” Viking Vinylmations to make the two bedside lamps. It was a lot of fun seeing our dream come true and a tremendous satisfaction to see it finally completed with all the figures in place. The array of colors is phenomenal! The pictures do not completely do it justice.

How long did it take to complete?
It basically took about six months of planning and six months to complete the construction of the bedroom and shelving. It was well worth the wait!

Is it ever changing displays where you will swap new favorites in and out?
That is the fun thing about the way our Vinylmations are displayed. The display can always be changed around depending on new ones found and the new collections coming out. I am still using the foyer area for the most recent releases and they will eventually make their way back to the main collection in the bedroom.

Are there plans on building a Vinylmation Guest House in the backyard by about 2015?
I really thought that maximizing the bedroom space was going to be enough but as you can see it is already pretty much full. I am not sure what I am going to do once the foyer and the bedroom are full, maybe a room with nothing but Vinylmations. I may have to use the guest house in the backyard as a place to stay if I try to design any more spaces in the house for Vinylmations!

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About the author

Nick LoCicero

Nick LoCicero has almost 20 years experience in the media industry. He has worked on numerous Disney related media projects, most know at WDWNT for WDW News Tonight. He has been visiting Walt Disney World since 1982. After moving to Orlando in the late 90's he became a passholder, developed a fascination with the history of the vacation kingdom and has spent way too much money on park merchandise.

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